Jason Momoa's Duncan Idaho Gets The Spotlight In New Dune Featurette

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary have released a new "Dune" featurette focused on Duncan Idaho, the highly-skilled Swordmaster of the Ginaz whose fierce loyalty to House Atreides and Paul in particular makes him a prime focus of Denis Villeneuve's new adaptation. He's played by Jason Momoa, who has done his own fair share of onscreen saber-rattling in movies like "Aquaman" and "Conan the Barbarian."

In Frank Herbert's original 1965 book, Idaho is described as having a "dark round face" and "feline movements, the swiftness of reflex that made him such a difficult weapons teacher to emulate." Momoa seems to carry all that with him in spades in this new behind-the-scenes footage, especially in the training and on-set glimpses we see of him mowing through the Emperor's fearsome Sardaukar troops. For those unaware, Idaho is the only common-thread character throughout all six of Herbert's original six novels, and in sci-fi circles is considered to be in the same iconic league as Han Solo. How he makes it through all those books  — which span eons of time — is up to you to discover. 

A big moment in this clip comes when Momoa is about to shoot a big brawl and he says to the camera, "So ... I saw the season finale of 'Game of Thrones' last night. This fight's for you, Khaleesi." This is hilarious because, of course, during the first season of "Thrones" Momoa played Dothraki leader Khal Drogo, who was the ill-fated arranged husband of Daenerys Targaryen, the conqueror who famously met her fate in that controversial final episode of the show. What a lot of people don't remember is in 2011 Momoa's intended star-making turn in "Conan the Barbarian" came out and bombed, but since his Drogo character was so popular on "Thrones" it canceled out any negative attention he got for that Robert E. Howard revival.

Now that Momoa is a bonafide star thanks to his DC Extended Universe success as well as his starring role in Apple TV+'s "See," it only makes sense to make Momoa a big part of the marketing of "Dune." Simply based on the trailers, it's already plain that the character of Duncan Idaho will play a much larger role in this version of the story. In David Lynch's 1984 take, Idaho was played with far different energy by the late Richard Jordan ("Logan's Run"), whose presence was limited to three minor scenes where he is essentially (SPOILER) 1. introduced, 2. delivers some important exposition to Duke Leto about the Fremen and 3. is dispatched quickly after punching one guy. 

It's seems fair to say we'll get a lot more action out of Momoa's Idaho when "Dune" arrives in theaters and on HBO Max October 22, 2021.